InMotion Hosting Review – Fastest Shared Hosting?

InMotion Hosting is one of the most reputable shared web hosts out there, offering quite a bit of bang for buck. Though they provide everything starting from shared hosting, to reseller, to VPS and even dedicated servers, they're mainly well-known for their shared hosting, and that's what I decided to review, after reviewing BlueHost. Keep reading this InMotion Hosting review to know about my experiences with them.

The InMotion Advantages

InMotion have been around in the shared hosting game since more than 15 years since they were originally founded in 2001. Not only have they managed to stick around all these years while becoming one of the most well-known shared hosts worldwide, they've also successfully avoided being bought by a larger group like EIG and turned to a horrible provider (as has been the case with A Small Orange, iPage and numerous other hosts that have been acquired and doomed by EIG).

Hence, InMotion is currently one of the largest independently operated hosting companies around. Below are some of the most exciting features that come standard with their shared hosting plans:

2 different data centers in USA, one in East Coast (Washington DC) and another in the West Coast (Los Angeles, CA); allowing you to choose from 2 different locations for your server.

Free domain (for 1 year) along with your shared hosting plan. Even if you don't register a new domain at the time of sign-up, you get a free-domain credit for later usage.

Managed WordPress hosting, having 100% compatibility with most (if not all) WordPress features and plugins ranging from basic ones to the most advanced ones.

Real-Time SPAM Filtering - most spam emails will be filtered out before even reaching your inbox.

90-days Money-back Guaranty (industry leading) along with anytime money back guaranty (pro-rated refunds). So, you can claim a refund anytime and get a partial refund for the amount of time you didn't use their services.

Max Speed Zones - peering based network-level feature with CDN-level usability that ensures your site loads blazing fast for all visitors in as many different locations as possible.

Speed - Testing Load Times

I've found InMotion's shared servers to be one of the fastest in the business. Not only was the initial response time impressive (around 100ms), the total page loading time was nothing short of amazing for a shared hosting server.

It's not a huge surprise considering how SSD-driven servers are generally so much faster than traditional hard drive driven ones. It's also not a surprise considering how InMotion are known not to oversell their servers, meaning that there's ample amount of server resources to be used by each user account.

Uptime Stats

In my testing period with InMotion, the test site didn't experience a single instance of downtime. This is pretty much as good as it gets with not just shared hosting, but any kind of web hosting.

Apart from that, InMotion also has a 99.9% uptime guaranty which is mentioned on their SLA (Service-Level-Agreement). So, in short, uptime shouldn't be an issue if you decide to host your site on InMotion's platform.

Price – InMotion's Shared Plans Compared

InMotion Hosting's shared hosting plans are decently priced. The plans mainly vary based on the number of add-on domains (i.e. the number of unique websites) that you can host on them.

Their lowest plan, ​Launch, comes at $5.99/mo ($4.89/mo with discounted link). It allows you to host 2 separate domains on it. Apart from that it also doesn't come with the 1-click eCommerce software installation like the two higher-priced plans.

​Their mid-sized plan, Power, comes at $7.99/mo ($6.29/mo with discounted link), and allows you to host 6 different websites on it. It also comes with the option to create and use an unlimited number of MySQL databases (though that still doesn't let you host more than 6 different sites).

​Their highest offering is called Pro, and it is priced at $13.99/mo ($10.49/mo with discounted link), which is a bit more than what a regular shared hosting user usually looks to spend. The characteristic feature of this plan is the ability to host an unlimited number of sites on one account.

For most users, the Power, or even the Launch plan would be more than sufficient, as any serious blogger or webmaster hardly gets any time to handle more than a couple of sites.​ For the most hard-core users out there, however, InMotion Hosting has a solution in the form of the Pro plan.

Exclusive InMotion Hosting Coupon for 2016

InMotion Hosting are usually very strict about offering discounts, as their plans are already priced quite competitively when you bring all those features into account. I, however, managed to get an exclusive discounted deal for the visitors of TechTage from InMotion themselves. If you decide to choose InMotion, you can get hold of this InMotion Hosting discount link that offers dynamic discounts for the different plans. You just need to click the button below, and your discount will be activated and will work for the next couple of months.

Support

InMotion Hosting are one of the few web hosts that offer fully US-based support, as well as a true toll-free phone support, along with 24x7 live-chat and email support. Though my experience with InMotion Hosting has been limited, I've found their support department to be adequate at the very least, when it comes to answering general tech queries or looking up for site-specific issues.

The support response times are nothing bad to worry about, either, and though it varied quite a bit, from 5 minutes to an hour, the first response hasn't been a fluke, auto-generated response or something completely unhelpful, as is the case with most cheap shared hosts. Most cheap shared hosts tend to employ support staff who follow a very basic, rigid, troubleshooting steps that can be annoying for experienced users.

In my opinion, it's better to wait for half an hour and get a solution directly in the first response than getting an unhelpful response within 5 minutes, followed by an hour-long back-and-forth messaging before finally coming up with the solution, as I've experienced with some other hosts.​

One more thing that I'd like to point out is that InMotion's knowledge-base is really helpful, especially for beginners. It allows you to search and directly find answers to queries you'd otherwise have to ask a person to get answered.

Concluding this InMotion Hosting Review

InMotion Hosting is one of those old and reliable shared hosting providers that have seen and survived it all, without compromising on its quality, or succumbing to an EIG-acquisition.

InMotion's shared hosting plans are neither too cheap nor too expensive. They sit right in the middle in the pricing chart. However, when you take all of their features into account, you can realize that you're actually getting a much more value-for-money deal than you'd be getting with cheaper hosts. It's hard to argue about the prices, given how my test site experienced no downtime, and posted incredible performance stats throughout the testing period.​

The only potential con I can come up with is the limited add-on domains for their most basic plan. But that probably wouldn't matter that much to the target audience (new bloggers / webmasters who're just starting out).

Overall, ​InMotion Hosting is a decent host for the money. I would definitely give them a try if I were looking for a reliable, feature-packed, yet reasonably priced shared web host.

InMotion Hosting is one of the largest independently-owned web hosting companies in the world. Their history dates back to as far as 2001. They're also an A+ rated BBB-accredited company. You may have read a lot of stories about how bigger holding companies like Endurance International Group eat up their competition by acquiring smaller, growing companies that are known for their high-quality, and turning them into trash. It happened even with a homegrown web host like A Small Orange. Fortunately, you don't have to worry about this at all with InMotion, who are still free from larger corporate interventions in their operations.

DID YOU KNOW?

The company behind InMotion also owns Web Hosting Hub, a sister-company that caters more towards beginners with little to no knowledge about websites and web hosting. InMotion is geared towards serious people who know their stuff, while Web Hosting Hub is for absolute beginners who just want to get their blogs up for a cheap price and without going into the technical tid bits.

Both InMotion and Web Hosting Hub offer a custom website builder known as BoldGrid. It's got a lot of praises lately and is one of the reasons why people jump on the InMotion/WHH boat these days.

Another interesting fact, InMotion is also one of the few BIG players in the industry that offer (actually) US-based support. Many of the EIG-owned brands, for example iPage, are known for outsourcing support to countries like India and Philippines, and still acting like they have US-based support. As a result, you generally get very poor support from non-native English speakers. In fact, I've experienced this myself in the past with iPage, when a live-chat staff of theirs claimed to be some "Dave" based out of California. When I traced his IP, I found out that his actual location was Bangalore, India.

​One more thing I really liked about InMotion is that a lot of their staff are active on web hosting communities like WebHostingTalk. Their engineers are frequently seen answering technical queries by potential customers on forums. They don't shy away from sharing the technical setup they have, and even some internal policies.

InMotion also has a zero-tolerance policy against spam and fraud. Hence, they require phone verification for all new customers​. While this might be a bit of an annoyance for people living outside of the United States, it ultimately ensures that your website is in a safe environment, free from spammers and fraudsters.

​Another fun fact, InMotion Hosting have one of the highest rates of inbound site transfers. What that means is, more people come to them from another site, than in case of any other big player. The reason should be simple enough to understand, really. Bigger players focus more on marketing and less on quality, resulting in people finding them for the first time but not choosing to stay with them, opting instead for better alternatives like InMotion.

Summary of this Review

Speed

Features

Uptime

Support

Security & Reliability

Price

Summary

InMotion Hosting offers value-for-money web hosting for beginners and experienced users alike. I experienced impressive uptime and site loading performance while my test site was on their server. The support is decent, as well. Overall, they definitely get a thumbs up from my side at the end of this review.

Rohit Palit

I'm a 18 years old Inbound Marketing Consultant based out of Kolkata, India. I'm a technical SEO fanatic. I'm also interested in web hosting and WordPress sites. Want my help for your next project?
Connect with me on - My Personal Site, Google+, Facebook & Twitter.

Muhammad Luqman

its really a big help for the beginners…cause in the beginning its difficult to know each n every thing…

James Weigle

I can vouch. I’ve been using their service for a year now and what they promised is what they really do. Uptime is really 99.9%, no b*llsh*t. There was only one instance when my site is down and it’s partially my fault. Highly recommended.

About Me

My name is Rohit Palit, and I'm an 18 years old SEO geek. I'm a blogger and a passionate web entrepreneur. Web hosting is one of my passions, so I spend a lot of time testing different hosts for performance, support and uptime to publish brutally honest reviews of them.

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